Christmas Eve
by trustingHim17
Summary: "Uncle Roger's going to flip when he sees you at Christmas." So, what did happen at the family gathering that Christmas Eve? Labelled Crossover only because of history. Story is mostly mortal
1. Chapter 1

"You ready?"

Machaela blinked and looked up from the engine she was tinkering with. "Now? But it's—," she glanced at her watch. "Oh."

Grace chuckled. "Lose track of time again?" Machaela nodded sheepishly. This engine was being tricky, and she'd lost all track of time long ago. "Dad's almost ready to go," Grace told her, turning to leave the workroom. "Hurry!" she added over her shoulder.

Machaela hurriedly organized all the tools she had gotten out, grinning all the while. She had been looking forward to this day since she and Jesse had found Grace at camp last summer.

It was Christmas Eve, and today she would be reintroduced to the rest of their Dad's side of the family.

Their presence wasn't a complete secret, of course. With dinner hosted at Uncle Roger's this year, Dad had had to provide a number of how many were coming, but she didn't think Roger, or Austen, as they knew him, would expect to see the two teens he'd met at the range months before.

As much as she—and Jesse—wished otherwise, they hadn't had the chance to see any other family, what with keeping up with school, training (in three worlds, no less), and, for her, work. With a year off school to let her siblings catch up, she had been working at the local hardware store and loving it. Grace and Jesse were both halfway through their last year, and they all planned to attend college in New Rome together. She had taken the part time job as something to do for the day while her brother and sister were at school and Mom was working.

Hurrying up the stairs to change into cleaner clothes, she grinned as she passed Jesse doing the same. They were both stoked to meet aunts, uncles, and cousins again, to put faces to the names they had both worked hard to figure out.

"Ready yet?" Dad asked as he heard her pass, making to get up from the chair in which he was waiting.

She halted him, though. "Not quite. I lost track of time. Give me a minute."

She hurried into the guest room they were borrowing for the night. Just last night, the three of them had left Camp Jupiter to make it for the family dinner. Originally, they were supposed to leave for Austen's early this morning, but weather had come up and plans had changed, which had given them the free time Machaela had lost track of.

Soon enough, the four of them were bundled into the car for the two-hour drive down to Pueblo.

"So how do you think he'll respond?" Jesse asked after a long silence.

"Who?" Grace answered. "Roger?" Jesse nodded, and Grace grinned in response. "I doubt he'll have much of a visible response," she told him. "I've yet to see him express any real emotion. He'll be surprised, though. No doubt about that. Everyone else," she shrugged, "I don't know. Only Dawn really knows much about you, and I don't think she'll be there."

Machaela nearly asked why Dawn wouldn't be there, but then memory kicked in. Grace had said Dawn and Cameron divorced, and Dawn had moved to Texas. Last they had heard, she was looking for a place near Parker, but she hadn't mentioned a moving date the last time Grace had called her. If she was still looking for a house, she likely wouldn't be in town for the holiday.

Machaela let out a small sigh of relief as they pulled up to her uncle's house: they were among the first there. Good. If everyone came in after them, she and Jesse wouldn't be bombarded with twenty people's reactions at once. Jesse caught her eye and grinned, thinking the same thing.

"Remember," Grace said as they walked toward the door, "only Dawn knows the myth part."

Machaela and Jesse nodded. They had gone over this before: only the mortal version for tonight, because Dad didn't know about Egypt, and nobody else knew about Greek. There would be enough revelation for today. The world of classical myths would keep.

Excited, Jesse bounded up to the door, hand poised to knock.

Before he could, though, the door opened from the inside.

"Ellen!" Grace squeezed between Machaela and Jesse to give their aunt a hug.

Ellen grinned, glancing at Machaela's sister while returning the hug, but her gaze rested on Machaela and Jesse.

"Hello," she said with a grin, polite, welcoming, but without recognition.

Machaela noticed that Grace quieted and stepped closer to Dad, letting Machaela handle this as she'd promised.

Pulling her brother closer, Machaela looked at the first extended family member she'd seen in ten years. "Do you remember me?" she asked. "The last time I saw you, I would have been about seven."

She remained quiet as her aunt stared, but whether the gaze was searching or stunned, Machaela couldn't tell. She was about to speak up when Jesse said, "'Len?"

Machaela glanced at him, surprised he'd remembered the nickname he'd given their aunt.

Ellen's eyes snapped to him. "Only…" he voice trailed off, not believing her eyes. "Jesse? Machaela? But—" She cut herself off and gave them each a hug. "Come in! Come in! Get out of the cold! Roger!" she called to the kitchen, "Lee and his crew are here!"

"Crew?" he asked from the other room, his voice coming closer. "What crew?" He walked around the corner into the entry hall and spotted Grace first. He grinned and started for a hug when he realized there were two others he hadn't expected.

At Jesse's nudge, Machaela spoke with him, a Cheshire grin stretching across her face. "Hello, Austen," they said in unison.

Grace got much more reaction than she had expected, and Machaela chuckled when her uncle's jaw fell open. "What are you doing here?!"

"You can't think I'd leave my brother and sister out of Christmas!" Grace answered from behind Jesse. She laughed aloud. "Your reaction is priceless!"

His eyes had widened at her words. "Brother and sister!"

"You know them?!" Ellen said at the same time.

"We ran into him at the range last spring," Jesse answered. "That was about three months before we found Grace at summer camp, and we'd gone there to remember and try to find a clue to the family we hadn't seen for ten years."

"I thought I recognized you that day," Machaela picked up, "but I couldn't pin a memory to it, so I disregarded the instinct. I regretted that not two hours later when Frank, after waving to your passing car, told us your relation to William Noland, a name I know. We tried to catch you at the gate, but we didn't make it in time."

"I never considered you might not just share the names," he told them, squeezing them both in a group hug. "I thought you died in that car accident."

Machaela chuckled. "The story will probably be told to death today, but we were found by hikers, who, failing to find our family, raised us as their own."

A tentative knock sounded at the door and an alarm sounded in the kitchen, interrupting whatever Roger had been about to say. He hurried back to check on dinner as Ellen opened the door.

"Dawn!" Grace called, "I didn't know you were coming!" She bounced across the room to give Dawn a hug before she could even get her coat off.

Looking behind her excited sister, Machaela saw a man waiting to be introduced. "You must be Randy," she asked him. He nodded in response, smiling at her in greeting. "I'm Machaela. He's Jesse. We're Grace's siblings that nobody knew were coming today."

Dawn turned at the new voice. "I knew you were coming," she told them with a gentle smile as she wrapped them in a hug.

"Why did no one else know?" Randy wondered.

Jesse answered this time. "We were separated from the family by a car crash when I was five and Machaela seven. We only found Grace at camp last summer and we've been too busy to make the other family gatherings."

A car door slammed outside. Everyone was arriving in such quick succession, Machaela noticed, there'd probably be a lot of unfinished conversations. _Oh, well. The story will probably be told multiple times anyway._

Dennis and Sally wandered up the driveway, leading the rest of the family from the Springs. Cameron trailed behind, scowling in recognition at the sight of Dawn's car, maybe wishing he hadn't come. His expression cleared, though when he noticed one of his nieces frowning at him. Jesse couldn't figure out which one, but she must have told him off about being likely to see his ex at his ex's family functions. Jesse silently agreed—Dawn should be able to attend family gatherings without squabbles getting in the way. The house was plenty big enough if he wanted to be a grouch.

With most of the family arriving in one big group, Machaela and Jesse ended up getting a _lot_ of hugs and telling their story many, many times. Everyone old enough remembered them eventually, but the siblings had a few cousins that weren't old enough to remember. They gained family without having lost it in the first place.

Several minutes later, as the chaos finally died down, people started dividing into groups and their own conversations. Some caught up on news, while others chatted with family they hadn't seen since July. Machaela, Grace, and Jesse found themselves in the midst of several conversations about how Machaela and Jesse had been found and what they were planning to do now.

Mealtime was…interesting, to say the least. Roger and Ellen had assigned seating, putting new couples near each other but otherwise separating nuclear family groups so that everyone could continue to catch up. Dawn ended up next to Randy on one side and Grace on the other. Machaela found herself next to Roger. They found machinery to be something in common, as Roger had an engineering degree, and talked about the makings of engines for much of the meal.

Jesse sat between Dennis' daughter Jaymie and her friend Derald. They didn't have much in common, but she did cause quite a stir about halfway through dinner.

As Jaymie reached for her silverware, Jesse noticed a glint on her left hand.

"Grace didn't tell me you were engaged," he said. His expression changed as something clicked, and he turned to Derald. "To you?"

Jaymie chuckled as the entire table fell silent. His question had carried through every other conversation, and now every eye was on her.

She grinned cheekily and held up her left hand, showing off the finger where a small diamond glistened. "Congratulations!" sounded off from around the table and conversations started back up, now a mixture of news and the two revelations of the day.

That was bound to change, though, because revelations usually come in threes. After everyone had finished eating, Laura stood from her place at the table.

"You all know I've been working towards a promotion," she said with a grin after everyone quieted. "Well, I got it, and it requires I move. In three months, I'm moving to Maui."

Machaela let out a chuckle as her sister sat back in surprise. The three of them would no longer be the ones furthest away. Hawaii beat out Tennessee and California by far.

Somehow, Laura's announcement turned into a run on the dessert table, and everyone started cycling through pies and other sweets as a crash sounded outside. When no one initially looked up, Grace and Machaela shared a look across the room. Grace huffed in irritation as she put down her pie and called Jesse from the other room.

"I knew this wouldn't last," Machaela mumbled, shoving one last bite in before following her siblings. A crash no one else noticed could only mean one thing: monster.

It was bound to happen. They hadn't been attacked in weeks, and they'd stayed in one area too long. Hurrying out the door as they put on their coats, the siblings didn't even bother watching behind them, so focused were they on reaching the monster before it reached the house.

The snowstorm had picked up, clouding everything in a haze of white as the three fighters hurried toward the noise. A shadow loomed, and they picked up speed, still trying to identify the monster through the blizzard.

Instinct sounded, and Grace ploughed Machaela out of the way of a falling paw. A moment later, a roar echoed through the storm and Machaela mumbled something in Egyptian.

"Was that what I think it was?" Jesse asked.

Grace nodded, grimacing. "Nemian lion! Split up and target the mouth!"

With the snowstorm making it hard to see anything, the siblings spread out as much as they could, trying to spot the lion while also keep each other in sight.

A shadow bounded towards Grace, and she reflexively shot it. They all heard the _zing_ of the bullet ricocheting off the lion's fur.

"Be careful!" Machaela called. "You don't want to hit one of us with the ricochet."

Considering that, Grace changed to her Hunter's bow. She was the only one with a long-range weapon, as Machaela had a sword and Jesse a long knife, but they certainly didn't want any friendly fire.

Jesse was next, and the lion tried to send him flying with a back swipe of its paw. Jesse ducked just in time, but with this blizzard they were stuck on the defensive.

"We're not getting anywhere!" Grace called out. "Machaela, a word!"

They were too close to family for comfort in using Egyptian magic, but Machaela knew they didn't have much of a choice. They wouldn't last long just dodging.

She called up her staff in her left hand and searched for the word she wanted. _I need to see through._ Timing it to a gust of wind for the best result, _Eiorh ptem_ burned in the air between her and the lion.

Immediately, while the blizzard didn't let up, they could now see through it to the Nemian lion preparing to pounce on Grace.

"Hey, you overgrown fur ball!" Jesse yelled, running around behind the crouching feline. He swung his knife at the lion's foot, sending up a cloud of sparks and distracting it from pouncing, but it turned on him. He spent a very tense minute dodging swiping paws while Grace and Machaela furiously tried to distract it, which led into the three of them tag-teaming the monster, trying to make it open its mouth so Grace could put an arrow in it.

Nothing was working, and they were running out of steam.

"Machaela!" Jesse called from across the monster. "Would _open_ work?"

"Yes!" Machaela called back. "Grace, do you know that one?"

"On it!"

It took a few more minutes of tag-teaming to get Grace in front of the lion with her bow out and staff ready.

 _"W'peh_." The glyph glowed in front of Grace, hovering just long enough for her to drop her staff and aim her bow. The spell connected, and Grace's arrow flew true, piercing the roof of the lion's mouth next to a second arrow.

"Why'd you fire two, Grace?" Machaela asked as the pelt hit the ground.

"I didn't."

Machaela glanced over to find her sister scanning their surroundings, weapon ready.

"Who's there?!" Grace called out. "Show yourself!"

"Easy, there. You think I'd hurt you?" Dawn's voice came from the white. "Quit aiming your weapons at me."

Machaela and Jesse start to lower their weapons, but Grace cocked her pistol. "Something's not right."

"Don't worry. It's just us. Are you hurt?"

Jesse spun around as Ellen's voice came from their other side.

"Quit imitating me!" came from a third direction.

"Cyclopes," Grace said. "Circle up."

 **Hello, everyone! Took a bit longer than I intended to post this, but blame the sketchy internet. This is the first half of a two-shot, and I'd love to know your thoughts. Hope you enjoyed, and don't forget to review!**


	2. Chapter 2

The three of them put their backs together and began circling slowly, trying to spot the monsters in the blizzard. Machaela's spell had allowed them to see their surroundings, but only to about six feet away.

A shadow formed in front of Machaela. She lifted her sword higher, but kept circling so that Grace was facing it.

Thumping footsteps sounded, barely audible in the snow, and the monster charged. Grace fired right as Jesse cried out, dusting the monster. Turning, she found her brother and sister locked in battle against another one. Unable to use her pistol without hitting her siblings, she changed to a spear and blocked a club aimed at Jesse. As she turned to strike at the monster, an arrow flew over her head, impaling itself in the monster's eye.

The siblings reformed to the screams of a dying Cyclops to face whoever shot that arrow. Was there another monster out there? They still hadn't found the source of the third voice, but Grace had never heard of an archer Cyclops.

"Who's there?" Jesse asked.

"I already told you that," Ellen's voice said. "Care to help?"

The three crept toward the voice slowly, wary of another Cyclops setting a trap.

"I'm not a Cyclops! Now, would you come get me out of this snowdrift? It's cold!"

Grace cocked her pistol and maneuvered around to the side. "That sounds like something an elder Cyclops would say," she said quietly, "and I've no idea why Ellen would have come outside. I'll cover. Machaela, advance. Jesse, hang back. Machaela has the longer reach."

"Grace? Machaela?" the voice said. The voice shook a little at the end.

Staying out of Grace's line of fire, Machaela hurried toward the voice, wary for a trap but also worried that it _was_ their aunt.

Through the blowing snow, she finally saw a small shadow. She waved Grace off and broke into a run. No Cyclops was that small. She skidded to a stop as she found a bow and several arrows sitting next to her shivering aunt.

"What are you _doing_ out here?!" Grace cried. The three of them started digging her free.

It took her a second to focus on them, setting off warning bells for Machaela. "You were being stalked," she got out around chattering teeth. "Came to help. Snow drift."

"Is Dawn out here too?"

Ellen jerkily shook her head. "Just me. Hate Cyclops." Her shivering had gotten more violent, but now it started to slow.

"Come on," Machaela said. "We need to get you inside."

"M'fine."

Grace huffed at her. "You're a doctor. You know better than that. You're mumbling and shivering—" They helped her stand up, but she couldn't walk straight.

"And you've lost your coordination," Machaela finished. "What does that mean?"

"Hypothermia," Ellen mumbled, trying and failing to take another step. "Crap."

"We're not getting anywhere with this." Grace scooped up Ellen's bow and arrows and gave the lion pelt to Ellen to use as a blanket. "Machaela, you and Jesse are stronger than me. You know the fireman's carry?" They nodded and picked Ellen up between them, bundling the pelt around her in the process.

Following Grace down the street, they only found their way home from the remnants of Machaela's _see through_ spell, and that puttered out as they came into sight of the house, where bursting through the front door made them the center of attention.

"Mom?" Laura asked.

"Need some help over here!" Grace called over her cousin. "Roger, where are blankets?"

He hurried out of the kitchen at his name, taking in the situation at a glance. "Downstairs closet," he answered.

Grace hurried toward the bedroom, noting with relief as Sally and Dawn stood up from the hearth to clear a spot for Ellen. Grabbing all the blankets she found, including an electric one, she reentered the living room in time to hear Roger's question.

"What happened?"

"We went for a walk, and she followed when the snowstorm turned into a whiteout blizzard," Machaela answered, masterfully hiding her own chattering teeth. "We got slightly turned around, and on our way back we were lucky to hear her calling from a snowdrift."

By now, Roger and Sally had gotten blanket after blanket wrapped around the again-shivering Ellen. Roger turned the electric blanket on low, wrapped it around the other blankets, and bundled his wife into his lap.

Using her worry for Ellen as an excuse, Grace sat on the hearth next to Roger, only just realizing how cold she was. Much longer outside and the rest of them would have been at risk for hypothermia as well.

Machaela turned at a tap on her shoulder to find Sally balancing several cups of hot chocolate. Smiling her gratitude, Machaela passed one to Jesse before taking one herself. Sally took the other two to the fireplace, where Grace took one with a relieved smile.

Just then, Ellen stirred in her blankets. Roger felt the movement and looked down to find her staring at him. Breathing a sigh of relief, he squeezed her in a gentle hug.

Setting down her own cup, Machaela leaned past her sister to catch Ellen's gaze. Seeing her alert, Machaela offered Ellen a mug of hot chocolate, which she took and sipped on with a small smile.

"Stay out of blizzards from now on, okay?" Grace told her aunt quietly.

Ellen huffed a laugh. "Blasted Cyclops."

Only Roger was close enough to hear that, and he jerked up to stare at Grace, who put a finger to her lips. "Later," she mouthed.

He glanced down at his wife, whose gaze was beginning to clear as she warmed up, and noticed the undermost blanket was new. Poking at it, he nodded back at Grace. She knew he would want an explanation, but it could wait for later.

Grace finally looked up from watching Ellen to find that the room wasn't as empty as it had seemed. Everyone had gathered back around the dinner table, ready to help but out of the way. She saw many, including Roger and Ellen's kids, with their eyes glued to the couple. This had scared everyone, but she would recover.

Watching everything from the other side of the fireplace, Jesse jumped when he suddenly felt a presence behind him.

"You're shivering," his dad said, and Jesse found himself hugged from behind.

"I'm fine," he whispered back, leaning into his dad's warmth. "Coming off an adrenaline rush."

"What was out there?"

"The Nemian lion and two Cyclopes, and—"

"—The one-eyed freaks imitated you and Ellen both," Grace told Dawn several minutes later, unknowingly finishing Jesse's sentence. "I was glad to find you safely back here."

Dawn leaned into Grace's hug. "I just can't believe I didn't notice you leave."

"Now don't give me that," Grace interrupted. "You think I want you both out there in the cold? It's a miracle we found Ellen. If you had both been out there, we'd be taking at least one of you to the emergency room tonight. I'm glad you didn't notice us go, because you and I both know you would have followed us like Ellen did."

Dawn sighed. "You're probably right."

"Probably?" Grace huffed.

"Fine, yes, I would have followed you."

"And you would have gone out there without a weapon. At least Ellen had her bow. You would have been defenseless."

Dawn didn't say anything, knowing Grace was right but not willing to admit it.

Near the kitchen entrance, Roger clapped his hands to get everyone's attention, and Grace glanced over to find Ellen, still wrapped in blankets, sitting at the hearth under her own strength. She starting making her way over to her aunt, and she noticed her siblings doing the same.

"If you haven't looked outside in the last hour," Roger told everyone, "it's a whiteout. There's no way any of you are making it home tonight, and we have plenty of room."

He started divvying up bedrooms and couch space, but Grace sat down next to Ellen. Machaela claimed the other side and Jesse sat on the floor.

"How are you feeling?" Machaela asked. "I'm glad to see you upright."

"Thank you," Ellen's voice was quiet, but it seemed to be on purpose. "I can't believe I went out to help you, and you ended up saving me."

"Why did you follow us?" Grace asked, wrapping her arm around the older woman's shoulders.

Ellen leaned into the warmth. "Thought I could help you fight." She huffed a laugh. "I guess I'm not the fighter I used to be, but then monsters haven't tracked me in years. I heard the crash and figured one of the neighbors had a battle coming, then you three rushed out."

"Who's your parent?" Jesse asked, leaning forward.

Ellen wriggled her arm out of the blankets and pulled up her sleeve.

"Bellona," Grace breathed. "No wonder I've never seen you wear short sleeves. Do you keep up with the legion?"

She shook her head. "Not really. How long have you been in?"

Machaela glanced around the room, but everyone else was still occupied with setting up beds. No one was close enough to overhear.

"Then you have a lot to catch up on," Machaela finally answered. "Grace found out her parentage the summer she turned 15. Jesse and I didn't discover ours until a year and a half ago, but the three of us didn't go to Camp Jupiter. We went to Camp Half-Blood."

"Camp Half-Blood?" Ellen repeated, becoming more and more alert as she warmed up.

"Before Jupiter and Juno ruled Olympus," Grace answered quietly, "Olympus was in Greece, and Zeus and Hera were king and queen. The Greek gods didn't fade, they just gained a personality. Everyone at Camp Half-Blood is a child of a Greek aspect. Jesse and I are children of Athena, and Machaela's dad is Hephaestus."

"So all your training was there? Then how do you know about Camp Jupiter? And isn't Athena a virgin goddess like Minerva?"

Jesse shook his head. "Athena has children of the mind, like how she was born. She placed Grace and me into Mom's womb. We're the only naturally born children of Athena ever."

Machaela picked up. "And only a third of our training was at Camp Half-Blood. Another third was at Camp Jupiter." She rolled her arm over to display her tattoo. "We're descendants of Mercury, too, on our Mom's side. Reyna was pretty surprised to find legacies in Camp Half-Blood."

"Who's Reyna? And what about the other third?"

"One of Camp Jupiter's current praetors," Grace answered. "She serves with Frank Zhang, son of Mars. Reyna is your sister. The other third of our training was with the House of Life. Heard of them?"

Ellen shook her head.

"Egyptian myth," Machaela told her. "The three of us combine three worlds: Greek, Roman, and Egyptian."

"How much does Roger know?" Grace asked suddenly. Ellen and Machaela glanced up to see Roger making his way over.

"He knows everything, but can't see," Ellen told them.

"Hello, dear." He leaned over to plant a kiss on the top of Ellen's head. "You feeling better?"

"Warmed up and enjoying being almost hot," she answered. "I'll be perfect after a full night's sleep."

"Good. You're not allowed to scare me like that again."

"I'd promise but…"

"I know," he told her. "You couldn't keep it." He sat down next to Grace. "Now what happened today?"

Grace looked at Ellen to see if she wanted to tell him, but Ellen nodded for her to tell.

"A few monsters scented the three of us and used the snowstorm to their advantage," Grace told him. "Ellen saw us leave and thought she could help, which she did, but got herself snowed in in the process."

"And nearly mistaken for a Cyclops," Ellen added. "I'm just glad you didn't shoot."

Grace huffed in frustration. "I don't shoot unless I can see my target. You know that much, even if you don't fire guns as often as I have."

"Woah, back up!" Roger interjected. "Nearly mistaken for a Cyclops? And why did monsters go after _you_?"

"Cyclops can imitate," Machaela told him, "and they do it _really_ well. They can pluck a voice from your head and use it to lure you into a trap. The Nemian lion caused the crash that sent us out there, but two Cyclops imitated Ellen and Dawn to try to trick us into lowering our guard. When we heard Ellen for real a couple minutes later, we didn't know if it was actually her or another Cyclops."

Roger shook his head. "So the myths _are_ real? She hasn't been pulling my leg all this time?" He said that with a smile, earning a swat from Ellen instead of the tongue-lashing he would have gotten if he had been serious.

"Yes," Grace said with a smile. "The myths are real for at least four pantheons. You're looking at members of three of them."

" _Four_?!"

"Yup, four," Grace replied, glancing at everyone to make sure they were still out of earshot. "Roman, Greek, Egyptian, and Norse. The three of us combine Greek, Roman, and Egyptian, as Jesse and I are children of Athena and Machaela daughter of Hephaestus, and all three of us are descendants of Mercury and Blood of the Pharaohs. My sister's (on the godly side) cousin is a son of Frey. Ellen has stayed out of the loop too long. Things have changed drastically since she was in the legion."

Roger shook his head at them. "I should have guessed. And here I thought I could recognize a demigod. Who else here knows?"

"Dad knows about Greek and Roman, and can mostly see through the Mist," Machaela told him. "Dawn knows about Greek, Roman, and Egyptian, and can see anything Greek or Roman. We don't know if she can see Egyptian."

"So were you really raised by hikers?" Ellen asked, seemingly changing the subject.

Machaela laughed. "No. A couple of Egyptian magicians found us after the wreck. We were raised under Cairo, Egypt, by the Chief Lector of the House of Life and a sweet lady named Sofia."

"The Egyptian apocalypse brought us back to America a year and a half ago, then last summer a satyr found us and took us to Camp Half-Blood, where we found Grace. She had figured out our Egyptian heritage by then, and we found the Roman later in the summer."

"I want to hear those stories," Ellen said.

Roger broke in, "But not tonight. Now, you need to sleep. You can barely keep your eyes open. They'll be here a little while in the morning waiting for the roads to clear."

"Yes," Grace said, standing up. The living room was mostly empty, though she saw Dawn and their dad waiting and chatting at the table. "Get some sleep. We can talk more in the morning. We didn't intend to keep you up. Where are we sleeping?" she asked Roger.

"You three are sharing the downstairs bedroom. Your Dad and Dawn volunteered to claim the couch and recliner."

Ellen suddenly wriggled in her cocoon of blankets. "I need to give you your pelt back."

"Sleep under it tonight," Grace told her. "You'll stay warmer. We'll flip a coin or something for it in the morning. You shot it, too."

Roger gave them a searching look, and the siblings knew Ellen would be showing him the pelt before they went to sleep—or at least showing him whatever he could see through the Mist.

Grace, Machaela, and Jesse hugged the couple goodnight, then zig-zagged between furniture to reach the two at the table.

"She alright?" Lee asked.

"Oh, yeah." Machaela waved off the question. "All she needs now is a good night's sleep—" She broke off with a yawn, "as do we. By the way, Ellen's a daughter of Bellona, Roman goddess of war, and Roger knows but can't see."

Neither Lee nor Dawn had anything to say to that immediately, and the siblings made use of that silence to escape to their bed. They may not have been the one with severe hypothermia, but this had been the craziest Christmas Eve ever. All three of them fell asleep hoping they wouldn't have another like it.

A hushed snort of laughter was heard. _As if this family could have a normal_ anything.

 **And, that's it. hope you enjoyed it. not sure if anyone's even seen this story, so would appreciate reviews (but then, when do i not love reviews? :D )**


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